Should Internet sales be subject to taxation? California's US Senator Diane Feinstein doesn't think so. Neither do most of her constituents in Silicon Valley, who are riding an unprecedented wave of prosperity as the growth of Internet commerce continues. Many folks outside Silicon Valley, especially traditional retailers, see no reason why e-commerce should be exempt from sales taxes.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.capitolrecords.com/">Capitol Records</A> announced that it will release expanded DVD and VHS editions of <I>Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys Story</I>. The documentary, produced by Stephanie Bennett and directed by Alan Boyd, made its US television debut on VH1 in 1998. A soundtrack CD of <I>Endless Harmony</I>, originally released to coincide with the VH1 airing, is also available.

In his essay "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/208/">Let's Face the Music and Dance</A>," John Marks, founder of John Marks Records, asks: "Does high-end audio have a future?" Of course it does, he says. But will it be one worth the price? Marks writes, "for most of its potential consumers, high-end audio is now a matter of sharply diminishing economic returns. A large incremental expenditure guarantees only a relatively modest, even marginal improvement in sound quality." How to forge ahead anyway? Marks offers his advice to our "dysfunctional" audio family.

John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band's 1971 album <I>Imagine</I> has now been remixed and remastered at Abbey Road Studios in London, supervised by Yoko Ono, and will be reissued in a new version on vinyl, CD, and cassette by <A HREF="http://www.capitolrecords.com">Capitol Records</A> on March 28. The re-release precedes the April 11 release of a behind-the-scenes DVD documentary, <I>Gimme Some Truth&mdash;The Making of John Lennon's </I>Imagine<I> Album</I>, which attempts to examine the creative process that took place at Lennon's home recording studio during the legendary 1971 sessions.

Does high-end audio have a future? High-end audio most definitely does have a future. So do the Latin mass, chess, leather-bound books, and wooden boats. But the future will not be like the past, and I think we must face the fact that high-end audio's future, both for hardware and software, will be as a minority enthusiasm. We should plan and act accordingly.

Does high-end audio have a future? High-end audio most definitely does have a future. So do the Latin mass, chess, leather-bound books, and wooden boats. But the future will not be like the past, and I think we must face the fact that high-end audio's future, both for hardware and software, will be as a minority enthusiasm. We should plan and act accordingly.

High-resolution digital audio got a big boost on March 2, when Yamaha Electronics Corporation announced the release of its new RX-V1, a multichannel receiver featuring Burr-Brown PCM 1704 24-bit/96kHz DACs for all 10 channels, including two subwoofer outputs. Six of the channels are full-range with amplifier power of 110W each, with claimed frequency response beyond 100kHz.

Wes Phillips writes: "If, as some would have it, <I>Audiophilia nervosa</I> is like the dark night of reason, then certain audio epiphanies must necessarily stand out from a distance, like a grove of trees 20 miles away thrown into stark relief by prairie lightning." In his review of the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/207/">B&W Nautilus 801 loudspeaker</A>, WP recounts that "the B&W Nautilus 801 has the stuff to keep me in fireplace fantasies throughout my dotage, and probably well into my (hyper)active middle age to boot."

One of the music industry's "big five" will soon begin offering its wares as digital downloads. Seagram, Ltd. chief executive Edgar Bronfman, speaking on Friday, March 3 at the Jupiter Consumer Online forum in New York, said his <A HREF="http://www.umusic.com/">Universal Music Group</A> will start selling music online this spring.